reinventing how we live in the city

bicycle

New bike lanes on First Street, immediately adjacent to Los Angeles Eco-Village

There are a lot of bicyclists in Koreatown, but, as Jeff Jacobberger has pointed out, there aren’t many bicycle lanes existing or planned for the entire dense area just west of Downtown Los Angeles – including Koreatown, Hollywood, and Miracle Mile.

Over the past week, the area did receive one short stretch of bike lane. It’s about a third of a mile on First Street from Commonwealth Avenue/Beverly Boulevard to Vermont Street. This is immediately north of Los Angeles Eco-Village, and along the southern edge of Virgil Middle School.

For what seems like about a half-dozen years, this area has been under construction for LADWP water lines, and then for school construction. Despite construction closing a couple of lanes, as far as I can recall, the street never experienced any serious car congestion. The construction is done, and the street was recently resurfaced.

At one point in the protracted Bike Plan processes, the city of Los Angeles labeled the Virgil Avenue bike lanes as “infeasible.” Thanks to persistence from local cyclists, including Eco-Villagers, and leadership from then-Councilmember now-Mayor Eric Garcetti (special thanks to Garcetti’s deputy Marcel Porras), the city is now striping new bike lanes on Virgil Avenue from Santa Monica Boulevard to Melrose Avenue – just northeast of L.A. Eco-Village.

The new Virgil Avenue bike lanes connect to these recent bike lanes on Santa Monica Boulevard in East Hollywood

The new bike lanes are a road diet – reducing four car lanes to three – adding bike lanes and making the street safer for driving, walking and bicycling. They are beginning to build the East Hollywood portion of the city’s bicycle network by connecting to recent bike lanes on Santa Monica Boulevard and are very close to bike lanes on Myra and Sunset. You can ride the new Virgil lanes nearly from the Bicycle District to the new home of the Bicycle Kitchen. Woooot! Woooooooot!

Join now-Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell in celebrating the new bike lanes at their grand opening this Saturday January 18th at 9am at Sqirl, 720 N. Virgil.

Here’s the official announcement from City Councilmember O’Farrel’s office:

Please join Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell as we celebrate the newest bike lane project in the City of Los Angeles! Continue reading →

Hey ridazz! Come get your bicycle washed at Los Angeles Eco-Village! For real. It’s a fundraiser for the Westside Invite L.A. – a bike messenger organized bike race, open to all cyclists.

Bike Wash!

The Bike Wash takes place 10am-5pm on Saturday Septmember 1st 2012 at L.A. Eco-Village 117 Bimini Place, Los Angeles 90004. There will be food and drink for sale – come hang out even if you don’t get your bike washed! Bike washes are available at a scaleable cost from ~$10-30 – ten gets you basic cleaning, twenty better, and for thirty: you may need to bring sunglasses because your bike will be too shiny for the unprotected gaze.

Maybe some folks have already read about the Cypress Park bike lane issues that have beenreportedelsewhere… but it’s been sticking in my craw this week, I think it bears some attention. It’s been really disheartening to me to read city responses to implementing approved bike lanes on Cypress Avenue and Avenue 28 in the city of Los Angeles community of Cypress Park. Continue reading →

The city of Los Angeles has been quite implementing quite a few new miles of bike lanes lately. This year I’ve seen more new mileage implemented than any year (calendar or fiscal) since at least 1996. I rode some of city’s newest bike lanes today. They’re on Vineland Avenue in North Hollywood – 0.2 new miles of bike lanes extending from Chandler Boulevard to Burbank Boulevard. Continue reading →